Return Through Darkness Into Light
by Jetflash
Summary: Drizzt Do'Urden must return to Menzoberranzan in order to stop a war that threatens to engulf the entire world.
1. Prologue

Hey everybody, this is my first time writing an actual Fanfiction. I've written some things that are on Fictionpress, but this is the first actual Fanfiction. First, a few notes. I profess to not having much knowledge about what happens after the Icewind dale trilogy, so and inaccuracies are because of that. However, I know that Wulfgar is supposed to be dead, but this is Fanfiction, so shut it. Also, I do not own any characters mentioned except for those not mention in the books.  
  
Return of the Old and New  
Prologue  
  
Drizzt walked tensely into the main cavern of Menzoberranzan, Twinkle, sensing danger, glowing softly blue in one hand; Icingdeath exerting its icy pull on the other, sensing fire-based creatures somewhere in the cavern. Drizzt had hoped that he might never return here, having left it so many years ago. Maybe now they would have forgot him, he was hoping that they had forgotten about him, for if they had not, he would have no chance to complete his mission. He sheathed his scimitars anyway, just in case.  
  
As he walked down the streets of the city, he saw groups of dark elves passing by, saw Dueregar scrambling to get out of the way of a runaway cart, and other things typical of a city. "I guess some things are the same down here as they are on the surface world, sometimes," he muttered to himself. He continued making his way towards the compound of his family, Daermon Na'shez'baernon.  
  
But a lot can happen in fifty years, especially in cities like Menzoberranzan. Houses rise and fall yearly, and there is almost always some sort of battle going on somewhere in the city. Such was the case with his ancestral home.  
  
The gate was hanging off its hinges, and the huge stalagmites that had formed the pillars for the once-proud gate were crumbled and worn. The walls that had surrounded the house were smashed, and their remnants were strewn all over the courtyard. The house itself seemed to be in good condition, until you looked inside. Paintings and statues were gone, ripped from the walls, furniture was destroyed, and the only things that hadn't been touched were the statues of Lloth, the Spider Queen. The attackers, then the thieves, had known better than to destroy those. It would have meant something worse than death if they had. The armories were ransacked, and even the main chapel was in pretty bad shape.  
  
Drizzt had known what to expect, but it was still a shock. He saw the room where he had trained as the house's second boy under his sister Vierna, remembering the years of learning how to use his inherent abilities as a dark elf of the noble cast. Its stone statues and gargoyles, the ones that he had spent so many hours cleaning, were destroyed, their wings, limbs, and heads in pieces on the floor, or melted into shapes unrecognizable, even by creatures of chaos. The training room, where he had spent years with Zaknafien, was in horrible condition, with scratches, like claws, all over the walls and floor, which even the best of the Drow blades were not able to mark.  
  
The armory, were he picked for himself his first two scimitars, weapons that would shape the rest of his life, was in shambles, the holders ripped from the walls, the weapons long gone; the room where he slept, its basic bed chopped to pieces; the room where potions were mixed and stored, a room that he had never been in, was still mostly intact: if any of the jars were broken, the entire house may have exploded; which might have caused the city to collapse, but all of the potions were now gone.  
  
He entered the throne room, and stopped. 'Such destruction I never hoped to see,' he thought to himself. He entered, and went towards the throne itself. The throne was almost gone. So many things were carved into it, from carvings of faces to carvings of creatures being dismembered. He went to it, and studied it, searching for a hidden compartment. Finding it, he opened it, but found nothing. 'Damn! House Tre'far did take it!' He was irritated, but decided to rest until the "morning", and set up camp in his own old room. He ate some non-perishable trail rations, and meditated. His thoughts drifted back to fifteen days before, when he had entered that cave.  
  
I know this is something of a cliffhanger, but I'm posting chapters one and two as well. So go on and read them too. 


	2. A Friendly Favor

Disclaimer: See the Prologue.  
  
Chapter One  
  
A Friendly Favor  
  
Fifteen days ago, Drizzt had entered a cave to the Underdark, the same cave that he had used, over fifty years before, to exit from the darkness into the light. And now, he was returning to the darkness, in order to stop a war that threatened to destroy the entirety of the world above. His friends back at Mithral Hall did not know of his quest, except Cattie-brie. They would all of tried to go with him, but Drizzt could not allow that. The hall, which was still being attacked every few months, needed their protection. Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Cattie-brie had, so far, managed to survive without major injury, after developing a permanent immunization against the poison of the tiny drow crossbow bolts. This came from years of fighting the intruding drow.  
  
Normally, Drizzt would not have left them to fight on their own, but he had received a message that he could not ignore. A letter had arrived to him from his dear friend, Lady Alustriel of Silverymoon.  
  
Dear Friend,  
  
I am sorry to ask you to leave your friends at this critical and  
dangerous time; however, I must ask you to come to Silverymoon. There  
is urgent buisiness that must be taken care of. This may seem a  
strange and possibly melodramatic request, but you know me well enough  
to be sure that I would never call you away from your friends unless  
for something of great import, not only to yourself and your friends,  
but to the whole world. I will expect you to arrive in one week at the  
most; that may be all the time we have. I wish that our next meeting  
didn't have to occur under such circumstances, but it is necessary.  
Thank you.  
  
Your Eternal Friend,  
  
Alustriel  
  
If Alustriel, who was an incredibly powerful mage herself, needed him for something that she couldn't do herself, then it was very serious. So he had gone, and arrived within four days. He was, upon arrival, ushered into the city by a group of the Knights of Silver, guards of the enchanted city and lands of Silverymoon, and straight to Alustriel's audience room. There the guards left him, and moments later, Alustriel entered.  
  
"Thank you for coming, my dear friend."  
  
"What else could I do, My Lady?"  
  
"So formal. However, I suppose it is appropriate for the situation."  
  
"Does this have to do with why I have been summoned?"  
  
"The situation is very dire. Know you that the drow are not only attacking Mithral hall, but other places as well?"  
  
"I had heard of isolated patrols being sighted. But I thought it odd that the people who sighted them were not killed. Letting people live is not the normal way of the drow."  
  
"Normally, no, it is not. However, the Knights of Silver have, so far, fought off three such patrols. They have suffered heavy casualties."  
  
"I am sorry to hear that."  
  
"That is not the only problem. The reason that they may be ignoring the normal people is that they are on a tight schedule. I think that they may be testing our strength, as well as a new weapon."  
  
"New weapon?"  
  
"Know you Belwar Dissengulp?"  
  
"Belwar! How is he?"  
  
"He was inquiring about you, as well. Anyway, he is an old friend of mine. The deep gnomes have their own ways of getting information from Menzoberranzan. The things that they have learned are. disturbing. It appears that the dark elves have come up with a way of treating their weapons and armor so that they don't lose any effectiveness in the sunlight."  
  
"I wondered how the drow weapons managed to survive the trek from the caves to here and still be able to survive a sword battle with the Knights."  
  
"And that is not the most disturbing thing. Many of the Knights' casualties were due to magic."  
  
"How is that possible? Drow wizards are not allowed aboveground, due to the fact that their spells react differently in the sunlight then they do underground."  
  
"Being the secondboy of your house, I do not expect you to know of the mystical item possessed by each house of the ruling council. It is given to a house when it joins the ruling council, but is usually destroyed with the house, should the house be destroyed. This item marks the house as a member of the ruling council, and allows them to converse with the other Matron Mothers, although most that hold them do not realize it. It also allows them to reflect spells, but again, very few know of that."  
  
"Why should this pertain to me? House Do'Urden was not on the ruling council."  
  
"Did you not know? After you left, your house rose to the position of eighth house from the throne. It kept that position for years, until something happened."  
  
"What happened, My Lady?"  
  
"When you left the house, your family fell into disfavor with Lloth. Normally this would mean your house would have been attacked and destroyed, Drizzt, but in this case, it was Lloth's will that your mother sit on the ruling council. Therefore, House Hun'ett, the sixth house, attacked, but was driven off by your house's soldiers with the aid of the mercenary Jarlaxle and his group. This made your mother a member of the ruling council, but she would only keep it if you were killed. So she used Zaknafien's corpse to try to do it. That's when everything fell apart."  
  
"It seemed to be going well enough, but what happened when the corpse failed?"  
  
"When Zaknafien defied his orders and jumped into the acid lake, your family lost any semblance of favor with Lloth. Your house was attacked and destroyed by House Baenre itself."  
  
"I had known about that. But what does this have to do with the item you mentioned?"  
  
"It turns out that the items have one other ability, known only to the Matrons of the three highest houses. It is the ability to cast magic through the item to wherever they want it to go, while keeping the same affect as if the caster was there. Above the ground, though, the magic acts as if it were cast below ground."  
  
"So this means that drow are casting spells from Menzoberranzan that are taking affect here?"  
  
"Yes. However, there is one way to stop this. One who holds one of the items can stop this effect. By the way, do you recognize this?"  
  
Alustriel held out what looked like a necklace, but Drizzt recognized it from somewhere.  
  
"This is the emblem carried by a noble of house Tre'far. Where did you find this?"  
  
"It was carried by a member of one of the raiding parties. When this particular raiding party attacked, there were twice as many spells hitting the knights as there were usually. This leads me to believe that the item belonging to your house was not destroyed, but was instead taken by house Tre'far, which, as you know, is the third house of the city."  
  
Drizzt looked at Alustriel with a look of disbelief. She couldn't actually be asking him to.  
  
"So, Drizzt, I want you to go to Menzoberranzan and take it."  
  
Yep, she was asking him to.  
  
"As you know, my friend elf, Silverymoon is much the only thing that keeps the dark elves in check at the moment, and I fear that without being able to block their spells, we will not hold out long. But if you must, consider it a friendly favor."  
  
"Fine, I will go and get it."  
  
"You want nothing in return?"  
  
"My Lady, have I ever asked anyone to repay me for what I do? I do not do this out of want of repayment, or as a friendly favor. I do this out of want to keep those I care about, and those that others care about, safe."  
  
Drizzt stood, and began to make his way to the door, but Lady Alustriel stopped him. "When you exit, one of my knights will give you provisions, as well as a map to the cave. I will see you on your return. Oh, and Drizzt?" She kissed him full on the lips. "Please come back safely." And so Drizzt traveled forth. On the journey, he wrote a letter to Cattie-brie to be delivered to her a soon as possible. The letter detailed what he was going to do, but told her not to come after him, and to just tell the others that he was away, but not to let them come, either. He dropped it off at the last guard outpost of Silverymoon, before entering the wilds. After walking for three days, he arrived at the cave; the same one that he had used to leave the darkness, so many years ago.  
  
A/N: Keep Reading. It will, unfortunately, probably be a couple of months before anything is added after the next chapter. 


	3. Decent Into Darkness

Disclaimer: See the Prologue.  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Decent into the Darkness  
  
Upon entering the cave Drizzt pulled a map out of his belt-pouch. This map detailed the route from the cave where he now stood, all the way to Blingdenstone, the city of the deep gnomes. It had been given to him by one of his truest friends, a deep gnome by the name of Belwar Dissengulp, in Drizzt's escape to the surface. It included a wide route around one certain cavern. This was because, at the time in which the map was drawn, that cavern and the tunnels around it were the territory of the mind reading, mind-controlling, tentacle-limbed evil creatures known as Ilithids. Drizzt planned to cut time from the route by passing through the city. This was not from self-confidence in his ability to defeat them, nor from thinking he was immune to their psychic attacks, but because the Ilithids no longer lived.  
  
When he escaped from Menzoberranzan, he wandered around in the underdark for years, until he met entered Blingdenstone. He lived there for a few years, until it was reported that there was a vicious creature in the tunnels, coming toward Blingdenstone, and hunting for him. He left Blingdenstone, but was joined by Belwar, and together they set off. A creature that had, through magic, been transformed into a hook horror, a huge, rocky-skinned, clawed, and beaked predator of the underdark joined them. During the three's travels, they had been captured by the Ilithids, and made slaves. This did not stop the vicious hunter, though. The hunter was an undead corpse, brought back to life by the evil magic of Lloth. The corpse possessed the body, and the skills with blades, of Zaknafien, Drizzt's father and mentor, the only drow that Drizzt had ever cared about. Because the corpse did not truly possess a rational mind, it walked into the city, immune the Ilithid's attacks, and slaughtered all of them. Drizzt and Belwar had barely escaped with Clacker's help. However, the corpse did not stop, and at their next meeting, the undead beast killed Clacker, sending Drizzt into a rage. During the battle, in order to give Zaknafien's body the skill to beat Drizzt, Matron Malice (who was, in a sense, controlling it) let her control slip. Zaknafien, the real Zaknafien, became conscious, and, in order to stop himself and save Drizzt, he threw himself into the acid lakes below the natural catwalk where they were battling.  
  
Remembering this brought Drizzt's mind back to the map. He could go straight through the cavern, which would cut a day or two off of his journey. He hoped that, with luck, he could avoid meeting up with any unfriendly creatures. Thinking about Alustriel and all the other people he cared about, he set off, heading into the deep, deep darkness.  
  
He walked through the caverns of his younger years, avoiding contact with as many creatures as he could, sometimes with Guenhwyvar, his magical panther, by his side, sometimes without. He made his way through the Ilithid city, and through the acid lakes. He continued, eventually finding a Deep Gnome mining party as he neared Blingdenstone. He kept his guard up, knowing that the Deep Gnomes, in this situation, were most likely to attack first ask questions later. Alertness was a way of life in the Underdark, the only thing that will keep you alive. The only problem is that many of the younger Gnomes will take alertness for total paranoia, and, upon seeing something out of place, will attack, or scream and run away, both of which are bad ideas in the underdark. So Drizzt waited, and, when he felt the time was right, he stepped out of the shadows in front of the leader of the party. Upon seeing him, many of the gnomes started drawing their weapons, or readying their pickaxes.  
  
"Halt!" Drizzt said, using the language of the Svirfnebli, which he had learned in Blingdenstone so many years ago. "I mean you no harm!"  
  
"Why should we believe you, Drow?" The leader of the party said. Like many Drizzt had met during his journeys, he used it as a curse, spitting it out. "You could be the head scout for a raiding party, come to kill us."  
  
"I assure you I am not. Most Drow, even the most scholarly, never learn Svirfneblin, because if they ever met one, the Gnome would be dead before any words were said."  
  
"So? You Drow might have decided to try to trick us by using one who does know our language to make us relax."  
  
"That could be the truth, but I must ask you, do you know Belwar Dissengulp?"  
  
"Of course I do, what Gnome doesn't? Especially me, seeing how he's my uncle."  
  
That was interesting, Drizzt decided. He knew this Svirfnebli. His name was Rantar Dissengulp. He and Drizzt had played together when they were younger. He'd file it away for later. "Do you have any memory of an occasion where Belwar took in a Drow?"  
  
"Yes, but that was years ago. What does that have to do with anything? He said that it would never return."  
  
"I see. Do you remember any distinctive features of this Drow?"  
  
"I can't see how it's any buisiness of yours, but he had purple eyes. Wait a second. Take off that hood."  
  
Drizzt took off the hood of his cloak. "It has been a long time, Rantar."  
  
"DRIZZT! Is that you? I thought you were never coming back!"  
  
"Would that I could have come back under better circumstances, my old friend."  
  
Drizzt was happy to meet an old friend, as well as to come into the company of the Gnomes, who he was worried might attack him. Rantar was joyous that his old friend was alive, well, and back. All of the other Gnomes were utterly confused. Their leader, as well as their hero, was friends with a Drow Elf? How was this possible? Were not all Deep Gnomes told to avoid the Dark Elves, and to attack if there were no other choice? Then why, if those things are true, was Rantar chatting with this Drow as if they were best friends.  
  
The truth was, that when Drizzt still lived in Blingdenstone, they had been best friends. So they had a lot to catch up on; but that didn't happen until later, and, to the other Gnomes, was really totally irrelevant. While all of this was running quickly through the heads of all the Gnomes present, Drizzt and Rantar were still talking.  
  
"How are you, Elf? And Guenhwyvar?"  
  
"I almost lost Guenhwyvar while trying to rescue one of my friends, but we were reunited, and she is doing fine."  
  
"I'm glad the cat is well, but how are you?"  
  
"I am well, but I fear that I am not here for pleasure. I must get to Blingdenstone immediately."  
  
"You are lucky, then, because we were just heading back ourselves. Would you accompany us? Having a Drow of your abilities on watch would certainly help our chances of survival."  
  
"I will, and thank you. Company is something that I have sorely missed since I reentered the Underdark."  
  
"Very well then, let us depart."  
  
They traveled for roughly three days. Of course, being underground, there was really no way to tell. As they traveled, Rantar explained to the other Gnomes about Drizzt, which caused great relief. Drizzt spent the rest of the trip telling the Svirfnebli about his travels and adventures above ground. When they arrived at the gate of Blingdenstone, armed guards met them.  
  
"Who goes there?"  
  
Rantar replied, while Drizzt kept in the shadows. "It is I, Rantar Dissengulp, bringing the third mining party back to the city."  
  
"Why is there a Drow Elf with you?"  
  
Drizzt stepped forward and lowered the hood of his cloak.  
  
"I am Drizzt Do'Urden. I have come to see Belwar Dissengulp."  
  
This caused many of the guards confusion. They talked among themselves for some time, before questioning him.  
  
"What does Belwar Dissengulp have instead of hands?"  
  
"A hammer and a pickaxe, that may be set to 'humming' by saying a magical incantation."  
  
This apparently impressed the guards, because they looked startled for a moment, and then said, "We have been expecting you, Drizzt Do'Urden. Please enter. Belwar and the council are waiting the council chamber."  
  
With that, the great doors of Blingdenstone swung open, and six days after he had enter the cave, Drizzt Do'Urden, the renegade Dark Elf, stepped inside.  
  
Please read and review. This is my first try at actual Fanfiction, so be gentle. 


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